Fields of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to electronic messaging systems and method. More particularly, the present invention is related to communicating via an avatar embedded in an email message.
Description of the Prior Art
Internet traffic becomes more and more important everyday and an electronic mail (email) provides a quick and convenient way for Internet users over the world to communicate between them. An email communication is initiated by a message sender composing an email message which optionally includes attached files, and then sending the message to one or more recipient via a network (e.g., Internet).
FIG. 1 illustrates a traditional electronic messaging system. Once an email message is composed by a composer 10 and the composer pushes “send” key/button, the message is delivered to each of the recipients (e.g., a receiver 25) automatically, provided that valid e-mail destination addresses have been specified in the message. An email message may pass through a number of separate server devices, generally SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) servers (e.g., SMTP servers 15 and 20, Message Transfer Agents (MTA) 30 and 25) before reaching its final destination (e.g., a receiver 25). An action of each MTA is defined as a “store and forward” mechanism which means that each message is temporarily stored and then forwarded when the MTA has an appropriate communication channel available.
A mail client (e.g., Outlook Express® from Microsoft®, GroupWise® from Novell®, Lotus® Note from IBM®) has a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to use a Messaging service (e.g., email or instant messaging). This GUI is interfaced with two main software stacks (a software stack refers to a set of programs that cooperatively interact together to produce a result):                A software stack enables users to submit an email message in Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) to an MTA (e.g., SMTP servers 15 and 20, MTA 30 and 35) using an Internet Message Format (e.g., RFC2821) and,        Another software stack enables users to access to the message stored in a user's mailbox.This GUI may further include a directory interface, i.e., an interface to enable to access to an enterprise directory or to an address book.        
The SMTP protocol establishes a connection between MTAs (e.g., SMTP servers 15 and 20, MTA 30 and 35) to submit a message for recipients. Information exchanged during this connection are called envelop information and could be stored in a log file or during the store and forward mechanism. In a connection under the SMTP protocol, one message could be submitted for several recipients. A connection under the SMTP protocol is established with a MTA (e.g., a SMTP server 15 or 20, MTA 30 or 35) for a specific Domain Name. The SMTP protocol further describes a queuing method for congestion.
An MTA (e.g., a SMTP server 15 or 20, MTA 30 or 35) does not modify a message. However, the MTA puts information in a message header to trace a path of the message. When an MTA (e.g., a SMTP server 20 or MTA 30) accepts a message either for relaying or for a final delivery (i.e., a delivery to a recipient), the MTA inserts a time stamp line at the beginning of a message header. The time stamp line indicates an identity of a computing device that sent the message, and an identity of a computing device that received the message (and is inserting this time stamp), and a date and time the message was received. Relayed messages will have multiple time stamp lines like following:    Return-Path: <@GHI.ARPA,@DEF.ARPA,@ABC.ARPA:JOE@ABC.ARPA>    Received: from GHI.ARPA by JKL.ARPA; 27 Oct 81 15:27:39 PST    Received: from DEF.ARPA by GHI.ARPA; 27 Oct 81 15:15:13 PST    Received: from ABC.ARPA by DEF.ARPA; 27 Oct 81 15:01:59 PST    Date: 27 Oct 81 15:01:01 PST
The SMTP protocol manages the envelop information and the message header in the message. Under the SMTP protocol, a message format is included in the envelop information or the message header. The MTA via the SMTP protocol is not aware about the envelop information and/or the message header inside the message.
When a message is received and stored in a mailbox of a recipient by the MTA, there are several possibilities for users to access the Mail:                An User Agent (UA) (e.g., Outlook Express® from Microsoft®; i.e., a mail client) can read directly the message in the mailbox.        The UA can have access to the mailbox via a server under a POP3 or like protocol which provides message retrieval commands on a mail server. The mail server is called Message Store (MS) (not shown) and must have an access to the mailbox. All email messages are retrieved on the UA.        The UA can have an access under IMAP4 (Internet Message Access Protocol 4) via the Message Store. The IMAP4 is more sophisticated than the POP3 protocol. For example, under the IMAP4, email messages can be stored on the Message Store. A user can create folders on the Message Store to classify the email messages. The IMAP4 provides a remote management of the mailbox.        
However, in the traditional messaging system (e.g., FIG. 1), it is difficult for a user to identify a purpose of an email message or to have all background information about an email message. Furthermore, in the traditional messaging system, it is difficult to obtain instantly or immediately more details or information about a received email message.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a method or system for communicating via an avatar embedded in an email message to immediately obtain more details or information associated with the received email message.